Category: Brewerville

In 1920, the national legislature transferred the $50 pension of resident George Smith to his wife and heirs until his youngest child comes of age.

In 1921, resident Necoda Samuel Ross had his citizenship restored by the legislature in 1921. Two years later, Gaddison Freeman also had his citizenship restored by the legislature in 1923. Both men had apparently lost their civil rights due to previous criminal convictions.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1920, pp. 17-18; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1921-22, p. 36; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1923-24, p. 52.

In 1931, the local Hayes Brothers and Company Limited was formed to operate motor launches, mercantile businesses, mechanical shops and agricultural activities. Its officers included Wayland H. Hayes, president; Henry Clay Daniels, vice president; Highland G. Hayes, business manager, local and foreign representative; John B. H. Hayes, business agent and accountant; Luther M. Hayes, treasurer and chief, industrial division; James O. Hayes, Jr., assistant chief of industrial division; and Solomon Jesse Oliver Hayes, secretary and salesman. 

Four years later, the national legislature authorized J. J. Chesson and Company to operate for ten years across the Po River in Brewerville from Chesson plantation to the Kpor bank, with a maximum charge of six cents. Named as owners were J. J. Chesson, G. A. Curtis and Tabo. 

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1931, pp. 36-37; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1935, p. 43.

In 1915, the Central Free Will Baptist Church was formed, with the following officers: William M. Coleman, pastor; and deacons: L. C. Crooksy, Alexander Moore, W. H. Davis, William Cheeseman, John A. Coleman, W. H. Forfey and Shederich Williams]. 

In 1922, the national legislature granted one acre of public land situated along the left bank of the St. Paul River to the citizens of Brewerville and Virginia as a site for erecting storage warehouses. The land was previously used as a landing wharf by Brewerville.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1915-16, p. 19; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1921-22, pp. 49-50; Acts 1923-24, p. 4.

In 1897, the national legislature granted one hundred acres of land in Brewerville to the American National Baptist Foreign Mission Board for “missionary purposes.” That land is now the campus of the Lott Cary Mission School.

That year, three hundred dollars was set aside for a road from Barkers Street, Brewerville, to Logan’s creek, St. Paul’s River, in response to a petition from town residents. 

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1897, pp. 5-6; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1897, pp. 25-26.

In 1897, Brewerville witnessed the formation of two fraternal associations. One was the Zephus’ Lodge of the grand United Order of Odd Fellows No. 4069. Among its founders were March Gaskin, W. D. Coleman, Henry Chesson, William Adams, Harvey Bast, George Moore, J. J. Saunders, H. B. Lee, Charles Banks, J. C. Lewis, L. D. Davis, A. B. Richardson, N. W. Williams, Jno. T. Banks, William Lucas, Jno. Marshall and Alfred Boyles. 

The second was the Unity Lodge No. 96 of the Order of United Brothers of Friendship. Named as officers were L.D. Davis (w.m.), G.W. Woods (d.m.), J.W. Bowens (w.s.), J.H. Davis (w.a.s.), A.E. Brown (w.t.), E.W. Williams (w.c.), W.M. Hardy (w.s.m.) T.H. Hunter (w.t.), H.B. Hayes (w.t.), A.D. Simpson (w.t.), J.W. Ash (w.r.s.), Peter Slight (w.l.s.) and E.G. Mathews (w.t.s.) (1897, p. 4).  

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1897, p. 29; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1916, pp. 12-13.

In 1884, the national legislature authorized three hundred dollars for the survey of the town. That year, the local “Garnet Memorial School” for girls was also incorporated and formally granted ownership of one hundred acres of land previously donated to this institute by former president A.F. Russell. Named as officers of the school were H. R. W. Johnson, C. L. Parsons, R. H. Jackson, John O. Hayes, S. N. Williams, S. J. Campbell, J. S. Washington, W.D. Coleman, James M. Strother, B. K. McKeever and Spencer McMillan.  

At a T. W. P. leadership meeting in January, 1905, a Col. Slight of Brewerville issued an impassioned plea against the use of government funds for political campaigning, arguing that because of such bad political practices “God had turned his back” on the country for the last thirty years. 

Footnote: Karnga, 1909, p. 37; African Agricultural World, March 1905; Cassell, 1970, pp. 264, 379; Dormu, 1970, p. 67; Dunn & Holsoe, 1985, p. 43; African Agricultural World, February 1905; African Agricultural World, January 1905).

Brewerville’s founder was John B. Munden who was later joined by a group of 75 under the leadership of Ben Newberry. Among the most successful local farmers were Bissell, Banks, William Hayes, Batese and Lucas. Nine years after the town’s founding, a visitor wrote that residents “seemed cheerful, happy, industrious and hopeful.” 

In 1874, the town had one public school  conducted by a teacher, who was paid $140. By 1881 the town was the site of the AME Mount Carmel Bethel Church and a Presbyterian church.

Footnote: “Brewerville and the St. Paul’s River,” African Repository, July 1879, p. 55; “Government schools in Montserrado County, African Repository, July 1874, p. 220; ACS Sixty-Ninth Annual Report, 1887, p. 7; ACS Seventy-Second Annual Report, 1890, p. 4; Cassell, 1970, pp. 281, 284, 313, 322; Burrowes, Power and Press Freedom, pp. ??.

The town was named in honor of Charles Brewer, who gave $7,500 to the American Colonization Society to relocate repatriates from the United States to the site where the town was built. 

In addition to the footpath to Bopolu, the Po river provided another means of communication with wealthier towns further up the St. Paul’s River.

Footnote: ACS Sixty-Ninth Annual Report, 1887, p. 7; ACS Seventy-Second Annual Report, 1890, p. 4; Cassell, 1970, pp. 281, 284, 313, 322; Burrowes, Power and Press Freedom, pp. ??; “From Liberia,” African Repository, August 1870, p. 46; “Pennsylvania Colonization Society,” African Repository, Jan. 1869, p. 45.

Brewerville was founded in 1870 along a trade route “which is said to have been traveled for centuries and which reaches to the Niger.” The town sits on elevated land, about two miles back from the St. Paul’s River and three miles below Virginia. Within a year, a “substantial” church had been erected. A decade later, the government had granted over a hundred acres for a female school.

Brewerville was built on previously unoccupied land, located a few minutes walk from a Muslim town called Vonswah. According to Edward W. Blyden, when he passed through the area in 1869, the “whole region was covered with heavy forest.” 

Footnote: “Brewerville and the St. Paul’s River,” African Repository, July 1879, p. 55;  “From Liberia,” African Repository, August 1870, p. 46.